Don Lemon, a former anchor for CNN, was taken into custody by federal authorities on Thursday in connection with his presence at a protest at a Minnesota church earlier this month.
Abbe Lowell, Lemon’s attorney, confirmed in a statement that his client was taken into custody in Los Angeles on Thursday evening, where Lemon was preparing to cover the Grammys on Sunday. Lowell called Lemon’s arrest an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment” and said that the longtime journalist intends to fight the charges against him “vigorously and thoroughly in court.”
On Friday morning, U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi issued a statement saying that she directed the arrest of Lemon as well as three others involved in the church incident — Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy — “in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul.” FBI director Kash Patel confirmed that his agents and members of Homeland Security Investigations conducted the arrests.
The federal indictment charges the four with conspiracy and interfering with the right to worship, alleging the defendants “entered the Church in a coordinated takeover-style attack and engaged in acts of oppression, intimidation, threats, interference, and physical obstruction.” The indictment also names Nekima Levy Armstrong, Chauntyll Louisa Allen, and William Kelly, three demonstrators who were arrested last week in connection with the protest.
According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Crews is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter — Minnesota, and Lundy is a local activist and former legislative staffer. KARE 11, a Twin Cities NBC affiliate, identified Fort as an independent journalist. Fort shared a Facebook Live video to her account early Friday morning, telling her followers that federal agents were at her door. “They’re saying that they were able to go before a grand jury sometime, I guess, in the last 24 hours and that they have a warrant for my arrest.”
She continued, “This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media.”
On January 18, a group of demonstrators interrupted Sunday services at Cities Church in St. Paul after one of its pastors was revealed to be associated with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Per the Star Tribune, David Easterwood, the acting director of the ICE field office in St. Paul, was named in a lawsuit filed against the agency over its agents’ aggressive tactics.
Lemon was on the scene of the protest, livestreaming footage of the demonstration where people can be seen entering the building and chanting, “ICE out.” In the seven-hour video, Lemon is heard narrating the scene he’s witnessing. “So, the protesters are confronting church members and leaders. They’ve stopped the service. A number of people have left,” he said. At one point, someone off-camera can be heard asking Lemon something, to which he responds, “I’m not part of the group. I’m just here photographing. I’m a journalist.”
The federal government initially failed in its attempt to levy charges against Lemon for his presence at the protest. Politico reported last week that a federal magistrate judge rejected prosecutors’ move to bring charges against Lemon and his producer, citing a lack of evidence. Judge Douglas L. Micko did ultimately approve warrants for Armstrong, Allen, and Kelly, who were later arrested. Federal prosecutors then asked Patrick J. Schiltz, the chief judge of Minnesota’s federal court, to overrule Micko’s decision. Schlitz, who formerly clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and is an appointee of former president George W. Bush, called the action “unprecedented,” while signaling that he didn’t believe Lemon had committed any crimes.
“The government lumps all eight protestors together and says things that are true of some but not all of them,” Schlitz said in a letter to the appeals court. “Two of the five protestors were not protestors at all; instead, they were a journalist and his producer. There is no evidence that those two engaged in any criminal behavior or conspired to do so.” The appeals court also rejected the administration’s request to arrest Lemon and others.
Media organizations and press-freedom advocates quickly condemned Lemon’s arrest. “Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the Trump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists. This behavior has no place in the United States,” Katherine Jacobsen, U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement.
Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said the arrests of Lemon and Fort are “naked attacks on the freedom of the press,” noting that the courts rejected previous attempts to prosecute Lemon. “The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them,” Stern said in a statement. A CNN spokesperson said that the arrest of Lemon, a former network employee, “raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment.”
However, the White House is touting its arrest of Lemon publicly on social media:
